S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 129

Mad Doctor Murderer 24 – X Island

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The true meaning of the X that had plagued the crowd made Zhan Zhao and the others fall out of their seats – it was actually an X-shaped trench in the ocean.

Zhan Zhao held up the photo with disbelief, and the photo showed an X-shaped dark strip next to an island that matched the pattern.

"Is this naturally created?"

Gongsun held his chin, "Could it be a difference in colour due to the different depths of the seabed, or is it caused by some kind of currents or schools of fish in the area?"

"An X-shaped dark blue patch in the middle of a clear blue sea?" Zhan Zhao asked Jiang Ping, "Can you determine the latitude and longitude?"

"It's confirmed, it's an unnamed island that is small, it can be named X for now," Jiang Ping pulled up a few more sets of photos, "I looked up the news of the area around this island, and there's a big discovery."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang took the other photo Jiang Ping held out and found that it was an old yellowing file photo, which should be some years old. The photo was taken of a large, dilapidated ship docked near the island, and the crew were collectively moving things from the ship to the island, all in wooden crates.

Each of these crew members was carrying a gun, but did not look like soldiers.

"Look at the flags." Jiang Ping alerted.

"A pirate flag?" Zhan Zhao was surprised and asked Jiang Ping, "When was this photo taken?"

The others passed around the photo, and all found it rare – was there really a pirate flag?

"I searched the local news and this island is located in a shipping lane that was rampant with pirates back then." Jiang Ping tapped on his keyboard, "And what's even more interesting, most of these pirates were later arrested, and when asked where they hid the looted belongings, they all said they hid them on the pirate island."

Zhao Hu patted his chest, "I thought they would say in One Piece."

The crowd scorned him together, "Watch less cartoons!"

"Pirate island... it's very vivid oh." Gongsun pointed to the X, "It's like the two crossed bones necessary for a pirate flag, this look could be man-made coordinates."

"Also, I found some satellite photos through the military's help, which were taken about three years ago and have not been made public, thanks to Bao Sir stepping in to get them." Jiang Ping took out another set of photos and showed them to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, and they saw the same X island with smoke rolling around it, as if there had been some kind of explosion. A few of the subsequent photos had the wreckage of a plane faintly visible on them, scattered in all directions.

"Is this the island where the plane crashed three years ago?" Bai Yutang frowned, "It's not quite the same as the information we got before!"

"That's right, they’re two completely different islands, the one where the incident was recorded to have taken place is not far away" Jiang Ping held his chin, "My guess is that Island X is the real location of the plane crash, and the other island is the second site, which is a fake!"

"Transporting the bodies and plane wreckage to the other islands..." Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, "To cover up the truth."

"No wonder the reports back then were so undetailed." Bai Yutang smiled coldly, "That means there is a big involvement. This X Island must have some big secret, and the starting point of this revenge incident should be here."

"Even if that's true, then shouldn't revenge be killing the people back on the original island, why come here to kill Cen Yi, Qin Tian and the others? What's the connection with a group of people who were acting?" Gongsun was also getting more and more confused the more he thought about it.

"Let's go ask Chen Keqing." Zhan Zhao smiled faintly.

Bai Yutang was worried, "But she may not be willing to cooperate."

"She is completely unwilling to cooperate." Zhang Long walked back, "This woman is in the interrogation room now, arrogant as hell."

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly and hooked his hand to Bai Yutang, "I have a method."

The crowd followed Zhan Zhao to the entrance of the interrogation room, observing Chen Keqing's state through the glass. Zhan Zhao turned on the internal microphone, "You don't want to cooperate?"

Chen Keqing sneered disdainfully.

"Alright then, the damage isn't particularly serious anyway, let's treat it as a civil case and we'll send you the compensation bill." Zhan Zhao finished and smiled, "You can go now."

Everyone's eyes widened, letting her go just like that?

Bai Chi pulled at Zhan Zhao, "Brother, she almost shot Zhen."

Just as everyone expressed their disagreement, Bai Yutang gently waved his hand, indicating to everyone – look at Chen Keqing's expression.

They saw Chen Keqing looking in the direction of the glass window in surprise, her mouth open as if she was anxious. The most interesting thing was that she hadn't moved at all.

"She knows that the avengers' last target is her." Bai Yutang had already grasped Zhan Zhao's intention, "If she were to leave our protection, Chen Keqing would definitely die."

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Well, that avenger has no grudge against us, and the proper warning was just to keep us from getting in the way of the plan. The fact that the other party would go out of their way to make an enemy of us and even shoot police officers in order to get revenge smoothly means that the other party has come with a heart of certain death to take revenge. That is why it is not over until Chen Keqing is killed. And throughout the revenge process, several unrelated clues emerged, and it was these clues that led us to the truth of the case."

"Those few clues could definitely not have been caused by negligence from the side taking revenge, but someone deliberately gave them to us." Bai Yutang pointed to Chen Keqing in the interrogation room, "It could very well be her."

"She'll talk." Zhan Zhao observed the look on Chen Keqing's face. At this moment, nervousness and unease were already written on her face.

"Out of all those people, the murderer obviously has the deepest hatred for Chen Keqing." Qin Ou was still puzzled, “Such a serious plane crash and a treasure or something like that… why would they be related to an ordinary female doctor?"

Luo Tian did understand some of the revenge mentality, "The killer using feathered arrows is the habit of hunting, the most important prey is left to be enjoyed at the end. Before making the prey notice that they are in danger, their heart is exhausted to ensure that they are tortured and killed."

"It is indeed a long-planned revenge. No matter what, he would want to kill Chen Keqing with his own hands." Zhan Zhao smiled, "At this time, Chen Keqing was caught in due course, so we became the biggest obstacle to the murderer's revenge."

"Given the other party's ability, breaking into SCI headquarters is probably impossible." Bai Yutang was silent for a moment, "There are still two snipers out there!"

"The way they shot and wounded Old Yang and attacked Gongsun, the other side is quite professional." Ma Han shook his head and smiled bitterly, "Being targeted by a sniper is indeed like being targeted by a hunter, all resulting in death in fear."

"How big is the defensive area?" Bai Yutang asked.

"A radius of eight hundred to a thousand metres is very possible.” Ma Han took out a map of S City and spread it out, "The terrain near the police station is rather complicated and not well guarded.”

"How can you guard a one-kilometre radius?" Zhao Hu scratched his head, "How many police officers would be needed?"

"Not all places are suitable for sniping." Ma Han pointed at the map with his hands on the table, "I've analysed the sniper spots near the police station before, there aren't many locations, but to check them all, at least a thousand officers will be needed."

"The premise is still to use the police station as the target." Zhan Zhao sighed, "I can get Chen Keqing to talk, but I may not be able to find the elusive murderer.”

"It's not too late for a gentleman to take revenge after ten years!" Zhao Hu felt defensive, "If I was the murderer, it's not like I could hide for the rest of my life!"

"Let's ask the murderer first." Zhan Zhao saw that Chen Keqing's anxiety had almost reached her throat, so he wanted to go in and interrogate. But at that moment, there was a shout from the hallway, "Captain Bai!"

Jiang Ping walked out of the office with the information and saw that it was that zoologist Chen Yin who rushed out of the elevator.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang peered into the hallway together, and Gongsun also stepped out, "Chen Yin?"

Everyone wondered, Chen Yin had just left after delivering the photos, why was he back?

Bai Yutang noticed the wound on his arm and frowned, "What's wrong?"

"Zhao Qin was taken away!" Chen Yin ran closer to get a little emotional.

"Taken by who?"

Zhan Zhao was also puzzled, "Kidnapped?"

"Two masked men in black." Chen Yin had obviously run here and was a little out of breath, "They said they wouldn't hurt Zhao Qin and asked me to give this to you."

Bai Yutang reached out and took it, and saw that it was a note with one sentence on it – Tomorrow at twelve noon, bring Chen Keqing to Chen Kefeng's ward at the hospital, or else you will collect Zhao Qin's corpse.

Bai Yutang frowned and took the note, "There are many ways to attack if you're in a hospital, and twelve noon is the most crowded time."

"Hospital wards are too open for sniping!" Ma Han frowned

Chen Yin grabbed Zhan Zhao and was desperate, "You must save Zhao Qin!"

Gongsun comforted Chen Yin, "It's fine, don't worry so much." Saying that, he took him to the office to sit for a while first

"If the murderer is really Hao Ling, there is no need to worry about Zhao Qin's safety, it's just that..." Zhan Zhao suddenly rubbed his chin, "Why did they choose to capture Zhao Qin?"

“Cat," Bai Yutang looked at Chen Keqing in the interrogation room, “you interrogate her first."

Knowing that Bai Yutang probably already had some sort of plan, Zhan Zhao nodded and entered the interrogation room.

When Zhan Zhao walked in, Bai Yutang asked Ma Han, "The hospital is so crowded, is it suitable for sniping?"

"It's true that the hospital is crowded, but the ward area is not crowded and the target is stationary. In addition, the fact that there are many windows in the hospital wards is a major feature that makes it too suitable for sniping."

"The hospital is in the centre of town, and arming it within a kilometre radius is almost impossible." Zhao Hu smiled helplessly, "Even if Chen Keqing explained who the murderer is, the other party is now a desperado and has no fixed place of residence, which makes it almost impossible to catch them."

"Snipers are inherently difficult to catch." Bai Yutang said, suddenly smiling softly and looking at Ma Han, "But it may not necessarily mean it's impossible, right?"

Ma Han froze, "Chief, you want to..."

"I heard you did it once." Bai Yutang got serious, “It's a legend among snipers."

Ma Han was embarrassed.

The crowd looked towards him, "What did you do, Xiao Ma Ge?"

Bai Yutang smiled, "The ultimate technique to catch snipers, counter sniping."

"Counter..." The crowd looked at each other, "How is this going to be countered?"

Bai Yutang raised an eyebrow at Ma Han, meaning – you explain.

"The principle of counter sniping is sniper against sniper." Ma Han explained, "On the premise of knowing the target of the sniper, analysing the sniping environment at the time, as well as speculating on the opposing sniper's psychology, you guess the shooting location based on various circumstances and conduct an ambush. As soon as the other sniper appears, we take out the other sniper before he can shoot."

"So amazing?" Bai Chi exclaimed, "But there are so many suitable sniper spots, how can you guess where the killer will shoot from?"

"So there's a lot of luck involved, as well as having enough intelligence, especially about the opponent's psychology... I'm not that confident." Ma Han backed off a bit, man, this is too much pressure!

"You can do it." Bai Yutang gave Ma Han a very irresponsible encouragement, "I believe in you."

Ma Han cried out in a rare moment, "It's a bit of a big gamble."

Everyone patted Ma Han's shoulders, "Go for it, Xiao Ma Ge!"

Bai Yutang turned back to concentrate on Zhan Zhao's interrogation of Chen Keqing, but he heard Ma Han say, "I can't do it alone, I have to drag someone else down with me."

Everyone turned around and saw Ma Han reaching out his hand and pointing at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang froze and pointed at himself, "Me?"

"You've done it too, haven't you, sniping." Ma Han smiled slightly, "You're good sniper material with your vision and psychological profile."

"I've shot, but not officially." Bai Yutang waved his hand, "You can find another good sniper to work with you, I'll have Bao Sir transfer someone for you."

Ma Han shook his head, "It's too late, the good snipers are all out on missions, I know a few experts who will take at least two or three days to get here, but snipers must prepare in advance. Those trainees, mentally, can't handle the pressure of counter sniping at all."

Bai Yutang scratched his head as Ma Han patted him on the shoulder and turned the tables on him, "Head, you can do it, I believe in you!"

The crowd held back their laughter.

Bai Yutang sighed.

At that moment, he heard Zhan Zhao cough softly in the interrogation room. He was wearing his headphones and knew what was being discussed outside, and glanced at Bai Yutang's direction in a protesting manner.

Bai Yutang turned to the microphone in frustration, "Cat, let's begin."

"You're not leaving?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"You're letting me go without questioning me?" Chen Keqing reached out and pulled out a cigarette.

Before she could light it, Zhan Zhao took away her cigarette, crossed his legs and looked straight at her, "Then let's have a casual conversation, describe your current mood."

The crowd all wanted to laugh a little, this question was asked...

Chen Keqing suddenly laughed, "Dr. Zhan, you're great, naturally I can't beat you at psychological games, but I'm not the one who killed and set the fire, it's the murderer you should catch."

"Then describe the murderer." Zhan Zhao was straightforward, "Or tell me who the murderer is."

"It's Hao Ling." Chen Keqing whispered, "But I didn't see her in person, I guess it's her ghost."

Zhan Zhao laughed quietly, "A ghost."

Everyone looked at Bai Yutang – with that look on Zhan Zhao's face, did he think of something?

Bai Yutang shrugged – He didn't sense it this time, it was a quick glimpse through the glass.

"So tell us what you did back then, okay?" Zhan Zhao lightly tapped the tabletop, "If you don't tell me, you can walk out of here."

Chen Keqing gritted her teeth and hesitated for a long time before finally speaking, and spoke briefly, "I harmed her, yes! So she's come to take revenge."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: October 25, 2022 by Angel

Edited: November 14, 2022 by Angel